Poltergeist

The directors of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Jaws teamed up for this allegedly family-friendly haunted-house saga, utilizing cutting-edge, Oscar-nominated special effects for the tale of a middleclass California family trying to rescue its cherubic five-year-old (“Carol Anne! Carol Anne!”), who has been whisked away to another dimension by meanspirited apparitions. Any of us who saw it young will never forget it—especially the scene in which a man rips his own face off in front of a mirror. Though Poltergeist was initially given an R rating, producer Steven Spielberg sweet-talked the MPAA down to a PG, resulting in sleepless nights for children for years to come.